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Upcoming Events
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09 December 2023 Until 10 December 2023
0Updated 23 August
The 83rd public exhibition of the Manchester Model Railway Society will take place over the weekend of December 10th/11th 2022 at our new, spacious venue in central Manchester – The Sugden Centre, Sidney Street, M1 7HB.
25 layouts, including two making their debut exhibition appearance.
Approx 25 traders
Other attractions
Ticket prices held at their 2019 levels.
New venue with step free access throughout.
Visit http://www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition/ for full details about all aspects of the exhibition.
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09 December 2023 10:00 Until 15:00
0Hillingdon Railway Modellers - Running Track Open Day – Saturday 9th December 2023
Baptist Church Hall (side entrance), 74 Colham Avenue, Yiewsley, Hillingdon, London UB7 8HF.
Entrance £6. Open 10.00 – 15.00hrs.
Bring your O, OO or N gauge locos and trains to run on our clubs’ three separate test tracks.
DC and DCC available, but sorry no “live steam”.
Please note that this is NOT an exhibition, but a good opportunity to meet fellow friendly modellers, chat, and test out your models.
Expert help is on hand from knowledgeable club members if you have any problems with your models. Refreshments will be available all day.
Nearest railway station: West Drayton (12 minutes’ walk). Local bus services 222, 350, U1, U3 & U5. Website http://www.hillingdonrailwaymodellers.co.uk or phone Peter on 020 8368 4090.
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09 December 2023 10:00 Until 16:00
0I am really pleased to be posting details of the second Railway Studies and Modellers Show at the Passmore Edwards Centre, which is Newton Abbot Library.
The event will be held on December 9th 2023, and runs from 10am to 4pm, there is no admission charge, but the Railway Studies Collection is part of Newton Abbot library, which is managed by Libraries Unlimited, a registered charity, and a suggested donation of £5 per person would be appreciated, to help maintain what is a huge collection of railway books, photographs and ephemera.
There will be two talk taking place at the show, there is a separate charge for attending these, one by Graham Walker who is the Secretary of the Railway Studies Friends, and one by JACK BOSKETT, award winning Royal and Railway Photographer, tickets for these talks are selling fast, don't miss out!
There will be good selection of model railway layouts and traders at the show, and of course there is a café at the library selling hot and cold snacks and drinks, the bacon rolls are very good!
please do come along and enjoy the show and the Railway Studies Collection.
if you are able to share the event with friends and colleagues, please do!
The Railway Studies Collection have their own Facebook page, please like and follow. They can also be found on Instagram and Tik Tok
Railway Studies Collection in Newton Abbot | Newton Abbot | Facebook
The library is 10 minutes walk from Newton Abbot railway station, 5 minutes from the bus station and there is ample paid car parking within close vicintiy
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10 December 2023 10:00 Until 16:00
0WOOLWICH MODEL RAILWAY SHOW (London)
Event Date: Sun 10th December 2023
Address: Shrewsbury House, Bushmoor Crescent, Shooters Hill, Woolwich, Greater London, SE18 3EG
Entrance Fees: Adult-7.00, Concessions-, Child-5.00, Family-15.00
Held at a stunning large house with interesting ww2 bunkers. Real ale bar on site and cafe. Model railway signs present <br>
Discounted tickets for tfl/london underground and rail staff (Passes must be shown on entry and pre-booked)
Free on street parking around venue and onsite cafe and real ale bar, so leave the car at home!
Bus 244 from Woolwich DLR, BR and Elizabeth Line and 5 mins walk from Eaglesfield Road bus stop
Bus 486 from North Greenwich tube and 5 mins walk from top of Shooters Hill
Bus 89 or 486 from Bexleyheath, Welling, Charlton, Lewisham and Blackheath to top of Shooters Hill
More traders and layouts being added all the time
Please note 1/3rd of show is in upstairs rooms with no wheelchair access hence why reduced rate for wheelchair users. There is full access to bar and cafe
Pre book tickets at www.modelrailwaysigns.com
Layouts:
Brief Encounter 00 Monochrome 1940s
Loco Graveyard 00
Ballyconnell Road Irish 15mm
Quarry Falls N
Weymouth to Ipswich Hornby third Rail
Taymar Bridge TT gauge
Oakbourne OO
Back on the Buses 00
Load of Balls
IKEA Central N & HO
Quevy N
Blecthinhurst 00
Clayton West 00
Somewhere in France 009
Hexton Refinary 0
Southdown Model Bus display
Calcutta Tea Line HoE
Grassinton 1890 Wide Gauge
Menkelholf N Gauge
Traders:
Models U Drive
All Wheels
Model Railway Signs
Kent Garden Railway
A Brooks Model tools
Harrison Brown Models
Southwark MRC Pre Owned
Shooters Hill Players
Beckenham MRC pre owned
Chilvers 3D printing
Lauren Villier Transport Images
Demonstrations:
OO Gauge Assc
DC Shuttle wiring demo
Organised by Model Railway Signs and The Shooters Hill Players Drama Society
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10 December 2023 11:00 Until 16:00
0Our annual pre Christmas mini exhibition featuring:
A selection of Club and guest layouts:
Ingatestone (OO)
Minories (EM)
Sandy Shores (OO9)
Our shop stocks a wide selection of pre-owned models – we’ll have a table of bargains, and new items not in our online shop. And you can ‘click and collect’ from our online shop post free as long as you order by Thursday 30th November (other on-line items won’t be available on the day)
Refreshments (including a selection of freshly made rolls and Greene King beers) will be available.
Please note there are steps or stairs to all rooms.
£5 for adults £1 for children
https://www.themodelrailwayclub.org/events/mini-exhibiton/
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Recent Blog entries
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Christmas is on the nearby horizon and in light of this, Santa Claus's sleigh accidentally dropped a couple of new arrivals in to the Johnson Street stable.
One of the Skodas I had been looking to add to my stable for some time was Christine, in DB red. 90037 had been going to Toton along with 90039 for new liveries. 90039 had been going for Grand Central liverying. It was all set to become the fourth of five DB90s into Bumblebee livery, when the news broke that the plan to operate push pull Class 90/DVT and Mk4 carriage sets between Blackpool North and London Euston had been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
90039 ended up being liveried into Backbone livery and the three already liveried DB90s into Grand Central were de-branded and returned to the freight pool.
90037 went into the DB Glider livery and was soon out working with several of the de-branded Grand Central 90s on MALCOLM group workings, a good shot of this, seen at Stafford, five DB90s in the same place, very unusual. Jack Mills (90036) was also seen in this clip, working with Multimodal on 4S47 DAV-MOS duty:
90036 in DB minus Schenker, named Driver Jack Mills, weathered and sound fitted was one which came across my radar whilst I was in the process of sorting consecutively numbered team Red Skoda, 90037, in the more recently liveried Glider livery named Christine. Christine has also been weathered to reflect an in-service liveried state and has her own acoustics as well.
Christine, not long after returning to traffic in her new colours:
It seemed a shame to let Jack past on this occasion as he had been created by the magician tasked with my loco masterpieces, so Jack got snapped up. Now, Jack Mills was already a mainstay of my stable already so Old Jack is going to get a new identity.
What that will be remains to be seen but either one of the 90s currently missing? Either 90020, 90029 or 90035 .. 90021 in Donald Malcolm is one on the radar for the future and there's going to be another 90, one which is going to keep the new liveries going.
In the real world, these 90s are now stood down, retired by DB and are due to be sold soon, but in my modelling world, they're very much active under the Team Red brand. The last 90 to be liveried was Donald Malcolm (90021) and my plan is to have a DB90 to follow on from 90021.
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Recent Entries
Latest Entry
New class 37 on site
Newly purchased class 37 by Accurascale on site, with some kitbuilt HTV hopper wagons. I must say, this loco is simply superb, and frankly amazing. Slightly off period for my layout, but I am very pleased to have got one for my collection!!
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Recent Entries
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When I were 'lad
When I were 'lad - Introduction
They say nostalgia ain't what it used to be, and who am I to argue? Memories of times past, when life was simpler and days were longer, trousers were short and knees were grubby, pockets were for train spotting books and paper railway timetables; those memories can all have a significant influence over us when it comes to our modelling choices. I wrote in my previous post about the desire to recreate childhood memories. I'd like to take that thought in a different direction this time.
When I was going through my modelling crates to pull together items for a small display at our local 009 Society Group gathering last month, I found myself feeling rather overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I've got (and my collection isn't large). Having written about the value of 'settling for less' and the benefits of a clear out at the start of this series, I hadn't appreciated just how much I've still got tucked away in the crates under my modelling tables.
For me, that afternoon unpacking and then repacking stuff away wasn't the fun I wanted it to be. Some of the magic of the hobby: the joy that came with the innocence of fresh discovery when I was still a boy - it just wasn't there. I'd lost the simplicity, buried it under all the accumulated 'stuff' of middle age. I even wondered (briefly) about ditching the lot.
It's not the same for everyone, but for me it was another significant moment. It has meant continuing the clear out, not only to fit the space I have for modelling and storage, but enough that I can also create enough space to recover a sense of excitement when I make or buy something new - I don't just want to be wondering where I'm going to put it!
From what I read elsewhere on RMweb, many of us have a stash to keep us going for a lifetime and beyond: I think I've seen it called something like our Stale ("Stash Above Life Expectancy") - quite possible in a piece by @Phil Parker, a reputed expert in the field. But
ifwhen I get something new I guess I want to feel some of the buzz I did when I first got started, and I'd never had one of 'those' before.So I'm trying to limit myself to the next ten structures I genuinely believe I really will build (and enjoy building):
Freight car kits are more common in American HO that some other modelling genre's, and I've drawn another line for now with the ones I've got queued up - again, all ones I really want to build (and have already been holding on to for some time):
My list of 'builds in progress' has also come under control - although there's plenty still to do on all of them:
But, hang on, what are those Walthers' platforms for, and isn't that an OO station kit? When did I start that? Do I still need them?
No, I don't need them, but one day I still want to finish them. So they pass the "keep or cull" test - I didn't say it had to be logical. The platforms were bought cheap as they go with a large HO station I've built, but don't expect to ever put on a layout. I started the platforms when I was considering a modern Continental Project in H0 earlier this year, but unfortunately glued the key components in place before realising they'd no longer go back in the box once I'd done that.
The Ratio OO kit was started in 2020. In the past I've written extensively about my interest in GW Branch Lines (although this kit is of Castle Cary, which isn't a branch line station). After getting involved in Narrow Gauge modelling (the subject of my next blog post) and picking up other long-standing interests, I didn't think I'd go back to tension lock couplings or steam locos without working lights any time soon (if at all). Which means I have quite a few 'bits' with nothing to do:
Why don't I get rid? I think because this odd collection of pigs, sheep, level crossing gates, signals and signs still evokes that elusive feeling of nostalgia coming alive again that I'm after, even if they're not on a layout. I just don't want to throw them away.
TT:120
The announcement on 6th June 2022 of Peco's TT:120 range came as a genuine surprise across the hobby. It certainly caught my attention. I found it exciting to be at the start of something, and it brought back a lot of childhood memories from my earliest days in the hobby in N-Gauge (very different in the 1970s to where it is today). That connection was perhaps best summed up in a discussion on an early TT:120 thread about what might be produced first in r-t-r that tried to compare the 'green field' opportunity of UK TT:120 with the limited selection we had in 1970s N-Gauge UK outline.
In my case the choice of GWR branch line models for Peco's initial range of affordable laser-cut building kits was another attraction, so it was an easy decision for me to embrace TT:120 and begin a small project:
Starting with some second-hand Auhagen kits from the 009 Society Members' online Sales shop, I made a start - and soon confirmed that I did not find the details too small (I now do with N-Scale):
I scaled back my initial foray into Continental TT (1:120) as I couldn't source the coaches I wanted - wagons and locomotives were easier to get here in the UK - demonstrating the size benefit over H0 (this train is on one yard length of track):
But why isn't UK outline TT:120 still top of my project list? I think for me the bubble burst over the amount of debate about the merits or otherwise of TT, in particular after Hornby entered the market (nothing against Hornby, it was the debate I wasn't prepared for). As someone not used to following Trade announcements, I was simply unaware of all the discussions that would ensue. I just wanted to play trains.
I still intend to complete the "Moorbach" diorama I originally planned, and continue to follow developments in TT:120 modelling with great interest (I still feel it is the ideal scale for today - that logic hasn't changed), but admit I'm no longer so sure when I'll take this interest further.
As I write this I do feel some of the 'mojo' may be returning, so perhaps there's something cathartic in blogging after all, or maybe it's just the photos of what I have already made - straightforward and simple - that can still connect me to the world I'm looking back in search of? We shall see.
Once again, thank you for reading, Keith.
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Upcoming Events
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009 December 2023
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10 December 2023
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009 December 2023 10:00
Until 16:00
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Recent posts
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88
Graham Farish - Winter 2023 Announcements
I look forward to the Fairburn release. Been waiting on that one for a while. Saw a photo of a fully painted up one on display at Warley. It looks very nice. -
8,962
How realistic are your models? Photo challenge.
should be a lower quadrant signal though! -
41,099
The Night Mail
I recall reading about a British politician recalling the dealings he'd had with a his opposite number in France. He'd remarked that when they got round to discussing how difficult it was to get citizens to adopt/adhere to new legislation his french colleague had said they never had such issues. To which his response was that was because you tell them, whereas we Brits ask them. I've often thought that a lot of troubles we seem to be getting into are because more and more people are telling others what they should do and not asking. -
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The Festival of British Railway Modelling - 10 -11 February 2024 - Doncaster
At the other end of the scale we have Simon Cullen's N gauge 'Tuemyll Junction' with a Settle and Carlisle flavour. Pre-book your tickets for early entry and savings. -
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BR Dia. 1/191OAA Open Wagon
I hadn’t considered this until seeing your view from below but those tension lock couplings don’t appear to be in a standard type NEM socket. Admittedly it looks much tidier in that area for it but for those of us that like a simple swap to a Kadee #18, 19 or 20 this is a no go and will require the use of a more ‘traditional’ Kadee.
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Active trade topics
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